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Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 21, 2013 67 Comments
UPDATE: Senate Filibuster Rule Change Vote 11-21-2013 https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/403582814064345088 https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/403577151737167872 https://twitter.com/mviser/status/403577482462240768 https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/403577524963123200

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 21, 2013 41 Comments
There is nothing too small to regulate. Or ban. Enter the doorknob, about to be banned in all new construction in Vancouver because ... why do you hate old people and those who have hand or arm disabilities? The Vancouver Sun reports:
In Vancouver, the doorknob is heading into a setting sun. Its future has been date-marked, legislated out of existence in all future construction, a tip to society’s quest for universal design and the easier-to-use lever handle. And as it goes in Vancouver, so will it go in B.C., Canada, and perhaps even the world..... And, as doorknobs go, so too will go those other ubiquitous knobs, the ones that turn on and off water faucets. For they too are being legislatively upgraded to levers more conducive to the arthritic, gnarled or weakened hands we earn with age. In September, Vancouver council adopted new amendments to its building code, effective next March, that, among other things, will require lever handles on all doors and lever faucets in all new housing construction.
A columnist at Popular Science is quite pleased (via Memeorandum):

Posted by A.F. Branco on November 21, 2013 15 Comments

Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source.  To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, click here. Branco’s page is Cartoonist A.F.Branco...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2013 17 Comments
James O'Keefe's Project Veritas is out with another investigative video exposing highly questionable "cross-pollination" between Enroll America and Texas Democratic political operatives. Enroll America bills itself as:
a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to maximize the number of uninsured Americans who enroll in health coverage made available by the Affordable Care Act.
As such, Enroll America cannot get involved in any political activity. Project Veritas, however, discovered that a Texas-based Enroll America official was willing to push the limits (to put it charitably) or even break the law (to put it not charitably) in order to help someone he thought was a Democratic operative. Here's the explanation from the Project Veritas website, Enroll America Director Conspires to Release Private Data (emphasis in original):
Do you know where your personal data is going? After meeting with several Obamacare Navigators who openly encouraged our undercover reporters to lie about income status, health history and more, it became clear that personal data was also being “cross-pollinated.” Enter Enroll America, a Sebelius-linked group dedicated to signing people up for Obamacare and Chris Tarango, Texas Enroll America Communications Director who Project Veritas caught on tape agreeing to help obtain a private list of potential Obamacare enrollee data for election/political purposes. Tarango goes so far to say he’ll “Do whatever it f****** takes.”
Here's the video, the first 15 minutes of which are the edited video, the remainder the raw video: Eliana Johnson at National Review has a more complete explanation:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 20, 2013 6 Comments
Charges have reportedly been dropped against the younger of two girls who were charged last month in the bullying case of Rebecca Sedwick. From CBS News:
The state of Florida has dropped all charges against the 12-year-old girl accused of bullying Rebecca Sedwick, a 12-year-old who committed suicide in September, according to a press release from Jose Baez, the attorney representing the defendant. Baez, who famously won an acquittal for Casey Anthony, is expected to hold a news conference later Wednesday to discuss the new development.
The 12 year old girl had been charged with aggravated stalking in October in connection with the case.  A 14 year old girl was also charged with the same at that time.  Authorities alleged that both of the girls harassed Sedwick for months before she took her own life.

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Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 20, 2013 16 Comments
Comedian Jack Vale is known for his hidden camera video pranks, which often capture reactions from unsuspecting participants. In his latest, he performs an experiment of sorts to show us that strangers can actually learn a lot from what we post on social media about ourselves. And that sometimes, our online world can collide with our IRL (in real life) world. The video opens: “Hi, I’m Jack Vale, and I wanted to see how easy it would be to get personal information from complete strangers. And while I’m at it, of course, freak ‘em out a little bit.  Keep in mind when you watch this video, I got all of this information just by searching their personal social media posts, and I got it by searching for the closest Twitter, Instagram and other social media posts to my current location.  Let’s go!”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2013 36 Comments
So often we hear Democrats demand Republican capitulation on a host of issues -- some social, some economic -- because Republicans are on "the wrong side of history." That argument was made, in highly perjorative, eliminationist ways during the epic struggle of Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and others to stop Obamacare before it inflicted more pain. That effort to stop Obamacare prior to the failed rollout of healthcare.gov was belittled by people like Timothy Egan in The New York Times as being on the Wrong Side of History, writing on October 3, 2013:
They are not righteous rebels or principled provocateurs. They are not constitutionalists, using the ruling framework built by the founders. Just the opposite: they are a militant fringe of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government trying to nullify an established law by extortion. This is not the design of the Constitution. Nor are they Martin Luther King Jr., or Rosa Parks or Winston Churchill — preposterous comparisons made on the floor of Congress by those whose only real fight is with progress.... We know now why Senator Ted Cruz, the most hated man in Washington, said he fears that once Obamacare is up and running people will like it — and then it will be too late for the obstructionists.... They wrecked the car, dug their own grave; no matter what you call it, history’s verdict came early.
Little did Egan or the others belittling the warnings about Obamacare realize that history's verdict would be against them; that Obamacare was it was not as it was sold and would cause Democrats to scramble for distance; that the Tea Party would be viewed as more in touch with American values than the ideology behind Obamacare; that big government would become the most hated thing outside Washington, even if Ted Cruz remained "the most hated man in Washington." The sweep of history is upon us, and it is not with the bigger government Democratic Party.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2013 10 Comments
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a hearing yesterday on the cyber security of the healthcare.gov website. The prepared testimony is available on the Committee's website. The testimony of so-called "white hat hacker" David Kennedy reflected the findings in a report from TrustedSEC, LLC (full report embedded at bottom of post) which concluded:
What this analysis shows us is that as an attacker, there are known exposures in the healthcare.gov website today that could lead to significant compromise of the website and information. Additionally, the website is integrated into multiple agencies including some of the largest collections of United States citizen data – this includes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other federal agencies. Based on our evaluation of the website, we have serious concerns over the security of the website and the ability to protect information.
The testimony was featured on Greta: ABC News further reports:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2013 7 Comments

From W (no, not that W): Obama's Political Philosophy Represented on a bumper sticker. ...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 19, 2013 18 Comments

It’s been another busy couple of days for news on the Obamacare rollout.  Chief among those is a report from the Washington Post that private consultants warned of risks before HealthCare.gov’s Oct. 1 launch: The Obama administration brought in a private consulting team to independently assess...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 19, 2013 7 Comments

There was a double suicide bombing targeting the Iranian Embassy in Beirut earlier today. There are at least 25 dead, including one diplomat. An al-Qaeda linked group is claiming credit, but the Iranians are blaming Israel. The bobming is assumed to be in retaliation for Iran's involvement in...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 19, 2013 108 Comments
UPDATES: Judge finds probable cause (no surprise). Prosecutor discloses unreported prior choking incident about a week ago. State asked for $50,000 bond, and certain exclusion zones, no contact, no weapons possession, etc. Defense asked for $4,900 based on state bond schedule. Judge sets $9,000 bond. Can't return to girlfriend's residence, except if accompanied by law enforcement one time. [corrected - later in hearing judge said Zimmerman should send someone else.] Can't have contact with girlfriend. No possession of firearms. Will have tracking device. No traveling outsided Florida. Judge: "I'm not increasing your bond because of anything that happened in the past. As far as I'm concerned, this is a brand new case." [caption id="attachment_71235" align="alignnone" width="624"](George Zimmerman with his attorneys at November 19, 2013 bond hearing) (George Zimmerman with his attorneys at November 19, 2013 bond hearing)[/caption]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 19, 2013 19 Comments
We have addressed many times recently the misleading claim that support for the Tea Party Movement was at historic lows or reflected the near-end of the movement: The ABC News - Washington Post poll released just after midnight has generated headlines for the sharp decline in Obama's favorability ratings by just about every measure, and the growing unpopularity of Obamacare. But there is a hidden gem in the poll that is not receiving much attention.  Support for the Tea Party movement is at 38% for all registered voters, not far below the 41% approval rating and 46% favorability rating for Obama.  Moreover, 46% think the Tea Party has too little/just about right influence versus 43% who think it has too much influence.  49% think the Tea Party political views are about right or too liberal, versus only 40% who think too conservative. It's clear that support for Tea Party political views exceeds support for the movement, likely the result of years of demonization, culiminating in the recent Democratic Party eliminationist rhetoric directed at the Tea Party. In the serious of screen shots below, you can see some interesting details, including that Tea Party support comes from the more educated, and even has substantial support among non-whites, although lower than among whites.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 19, 2013 7 Comments
The Cornell Review, the conservative newspaper on campus, has a long history of serving up great interns for Legal Insurrection. You may remember Kathleen McCaffrey who was the first Legal Insurrection writer (other than me) and to whom we bid farewell in May 2012 after 1.5 years and over 300 posts (and who recently got married, congratulations!); Michael Alan (who wrote from time to time, and also took the video of the Syracuse Honor Flight return), and of course, Laurel Conrad our current intern, and President of the Cornell Review. So it is with much pleasure that we note The Cornell Review has received the Buckley Award from the Collegiate Network, part of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which supports conservative students on campuses around the country. [caption id="attachment_71186" align="alignnone" width="350"](L-R: Collegiate Network program officer Lillian Gerken; Cornell Review President Laurel Conrad and Editor-in-Chief Michael Navarro; Intercollegiate Studies Institute Pres. Chris Long) (L-R: Collegiate Network program officer Lillian Gerken; Cornell Review President Laurel Conrad and Editor-in-Chief Michael Navarro; Intercollegiate Studies Institute Pres. Chris Long)[/caption] Here's the statement read at the award ceremony:
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